Use of a Mobile Application by Parents to Prevent Obesity in Their Children Apply for Your Health

Summary

Background. Lifestyles that promote a positive energy balance increase the prevalence of obesity. Due to the magnitude of this problem, community-level strategies are required on how to provide families with useful information to prevent it. Electronic media such as the Internet and mobile health applications are tools that have opened a new audience to send information, they are accessible and powerful, as well as the capacity to reduce associated costs, their access to information is uninterrupted, support , and personalized feedback. There is a need to develop and evaluate mobile health applications to establish consistent and effective methods to produce changes in health behavior in the population.

Aim. To evaluate the impact of a mobile health application in nutrition and physical activity on nutritional status in school children.

Methods. Community essay. Children from 4 primary schools in Mexico City will participate in the educational intervention. The schools were randomly assigned to one of two groups: 1) Apply for your health! group and 2) Control group. The educational intervention through the application will last 12 months and will focus on promoting healthy eating habits and physical activity, empowering parents to change habits. In the second year, the control group will be given access to the mobile application. At baseline, 6, 12, 18 and 24 months, children in both groups will have their nutritional status (anthropometry) and breakfast and school snack habits measured. Statistic analysis. Mixed effects models will be used to evaluate changes in BMI z-score within and between groups.

Conditions

• Obesity
• Overweight

Interventions

BEHAVIORAL

Applícate por tu salud

The educational intervention using the mobile application "Applícate por tu salud" aims to promote, improve, and reinforce families' eating habits, focusing on breakfast and school lunches, in order to prevent overweight and obesity in schoolchildren. Through the application, using push notifications, tips in the form of text messages, infographics, videos, and recipes are sent four times a week, encouraging positive changes in eating habits related to breakfast and school snacks. The information was formatted as follows: no more than 30 words, suggesting activities that families could implement at home. Eighty-four messages were generated for breakfast and 104 messages for school snacks, including detailed information on planning, selecting, and comparing foods, as well as their preparation and consumption. The information was generated by three nutrition experts to standardize the language, and a designer created the infographics, videos, and recipes.

Sponsors & Collaborators

• Secretaría de Educación, Ciencia, Tecnología e Innovación de la Ciudad de México

  collaborator UNKNOWN

• Fundación Gonzalo Río Arronte

  collaborator UNKNOWN

• Hospital Infantil de Mexico Federico Gomez

  lead OTHER

Study Design

Allocation

RANDOMIZED

Purpose

PREVENTION

Masking

NONE

Model

CROSSOVER

Eligibility

Min Age

5 Years

Max Age

11 Years

Sex

ALL

Healthy Volunteers

Yes

Timeline & Regulatory

Start

2024-04-08

Primary Completion

2024-06-14

Completion

2026-08-30

Countries

• Mexico

Study Locations